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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
K. A. Tanaka, A. Hassanein, Y. Hirooka, T. Kono, S. Misaki, T. Ohishi, A. Sunahara, S. Tanaka
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 329-333
Materials Development & Plasma-Material Interactions | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12374
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Laser ablation scheme can cover pretty wide range of intensity regime as a heat source at its laser focus spot from 103 W/cm2 to 1014 W/cm2. These intensities cover the ones expected at the divertor (MFE) and the first walls (IFE) in a reactor. For example expected values are of 10 to 100 MW/m2 at MFE divertor and 109 W/cm2 or higher at IFE first walls. The ablation may include plasma, gas, liquid, or solid: all possible phases mixed at an extreme condition where temperature may exceed 1 eV with corresponding densities. The areas of these mixed phases at extreme conditions (MPEC) have not been systematically studied. The inside of the solid wall becomes so called “Warm Dense Matter” where the details of the states should still be clarified.In our experimental setting up, the ablated plumes can be aligned orthogonally and can cross each other. The collision processes include Coulomb, elastic, molecular, and cluster collisions at the cross point. The characteristics of this experimental platform are introduced and attractive application is indicated.